1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to collaborative data processing systems and, more particularly, to a method and system for collaborative Web browsing which allows the collective knowledge and experience of an appropriate community to be leveraged during browser sessions.
2. Background Description
Web browsing is usually a solitary activity. Routinely, people browse various sites to research topics, technologies, markets, competition and to obtain reference information in their daily work and lives. Given the vast quantity of distributed information hosted on the Web, people are often confused or lost. There is a need to provide support and help to individuals' browsing activity.
Some Web sites centrally serve as a navigation assistant. These Web sites accompany a user from pate to page, recommending documents or hyperlinks that may be important to the user. This is done on a per Web site basis, and is not part of every Web site an individual may visit. Recommendations can be made based on a combination of factors, including the user's browsing experience, other users' browsing patterns, other users' explicit recommendations, and analysis of document content. Although such systems are useful for helping users find related documents, they do not facilitate direct people-to-people collaboration.
Web browsing should be more community aware or team based. Many have had the experience of browsing a Web page that they could not quite understand but thought it might somehow be relevant to their search or the company's business. Community or team based Web browsing has the potential of benefitting both the individual user and the corporate user during browsing sessions. As users browse various pages with various content, analysis of the browsed page can help identify related pages, or other individuals, in the public or corporate community who have knowledge about the page or page content. As members of the community adapt to community aware browsing, knowledge bases and topical support groups can be established pro-actively. Confidential corporate communities or teams can be formed in order to leverage each other's knowledge and experience during browser sessions.